Right Up My Wrapping Alley

It’s close to a moose. It’s the same family, right? Which, for all you nerds out there, is the family Cervidae.

I like cervids. Especially moose. Oh, we alllll know how much I like moose.

If I didn’t have children and a husband, I would be the weird moose lady.

Perhaps even they haven’t saved me.

I digress.

I went to Ikea today.

I came, saw, conquered the dollar breakfast, dropped the kids off at Smalland- successfully for the first time ever– and went shopping with my husband in Ikea.

This was a new, foreign concept, this shopping by ourselves in Ikea.

We could hold hands.

We could relax our shoulders instead of having them tensed in preparation for the next “Oh my lord, STOP bugging your brother!!”.

We could look with full attention, without one eye on a child, one eye on where we were going and the other on a product.

I know. That’s three eyes. What, you don’t have them? You really must look into it.

We have done this new, foreign concept twice this fall.

This time was even more glorious than the last.

Before you ask, yes, my children are 4 and 7. My daughter has had some, uh, anxiety issues with being by herself in new places.

Her nickname is The Tick. What does that tell you about her clinging, cloying, air and personal space sucking personality how much we love her?

It also tells you that I have deep roots in Manitoba, nicknaming my daughter like that.

So we were Tick and fancy free today.

Last time we tried this in the spring, our little “git-yer-lazy-parenting-arse-back-here-now remote” buzzed within 30 paces of the Small Land. We had about 2 minutes, 34 seconds to ourselves.

We considered it well worth the 10 minutes to fill out the forms and check our daughter in.

Today, however, was a raging success. So we went looking at the Christmas stuff, naturally.

These two patterns were adorable, I had to buy them.

And I had to start wrapping. It is so sturdy! Not a torn corner in sight. Very impressive.

And you can’t have wrapping paper without matching bows, of course.

Meep.

Sorry, are your eyes bleeding? The pattern is a little strong.

I am thinking I won’t be wallpapering anything with it anytime soon. It’s lovely in small doses.

Voila, the first present!

This is when I have time to care what the presents look like. It’s like crafting, you can be creative and have a nice time. But it’s November.

Catch me the week before Christmas and people are lucky if they get a greasy brown paper bag with a cheeseburger in it or some money stuffed in an old sock that I can’t find the mate for.

The husband’s gift. See? Beautiful in small doses.

I feel really, really proud of myself for wrapping two presents.

I feel productive.

I wish I could wrap the kids gifts that are hidden away, but they would be torn asunder quicker than you can say Momtoldyounottotouch.

I also had 30 shopping minutes to myself today.

I bought a Christmas outfit for my husbands Christmas party.

I also bought myself some real clothes, not a “costume” as my daughter kept calling my Christmas party outfit. She really hit the nail on the head with that one though, anything but jeans for this gal feels like a costume.

I bake, cook, homeschool my two children, develop recipes & author this blog all at home in Edmonton, Alberta Canada, while also working on my first cookbook, all of which should explain my love of fancy cocktails. And bourbon. Always bourbon.